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Residencies

Adele Myers and Dancers

2010-2011 Lab Artist: Adele Myers

Adele Myers is a choreographer who creates highly physical work that combine robust athleticism, theatricality and social commentary. During Ms. Myers Lab residency, she worked with members of her company to develop Theater in the Head. Riddled with confetti and iconic pop references, Theater in the Head is a highly kinetic satire about fame. The piece takes place on a 4'x6' pink shag carpet. Envisioned as a three-act evening-length work, each section explores themes of audience appreciation, unrequited love between the audience and the performers, and the juxtaposition of the hyper-theatrical and the mundane.

The sound score for "Theater in the Head" was developed in collaboration with composer Josh Quillen. Inspired by pop references and the use of sampling (of beats or spoken text), Quillen built sonic collages using sampled materials in juxtaposition with original material. Quillen is inspired by the collaborations of John Cage and Merce Cunningham, and their use of chance operations to devise new choreography and music, and these techniques were used as both a compositional technique and an important aspect of the composer-choreographer collaboration.

The choreographic concept for Theater in the Head originated as part of the 2009 Bates Dance Festival Emerging Choreographer Residency and continued to be developed during a year-long creative residency at Vermont Performance Lab. Additional residencies took place in 2011 at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy and at the Yard at Martha's Vineyard.

In Vermont, Adele Myers and Dancers developed the work during creative periods in June 2010 and May 2011 in the dance studio at Marlboro College and the recording studio at Guilford Sound. During the creative process, Ms. Myers invited students, directors and artists from the local dance and theater community to participate in various aspects of the creation process by opening up company warm ups, offering movement workshops and sharing the work through informal works in progress showings. Audiences had several opportunities to see different aspects of the work-in-progress in June 2010 and May 2011, and to see the premiere at VPL’s Progressive Performance Festival in June 2011.